"Not by themselves," says James Druzik, GCI senior scientist. "The
world is changed by spreading this information—by putting new
knowledge in the hands of people who can put that knowledge to work."

The dissemination of information is a core activity of the Getty
Conservation Institute. This emphasis was established to ensure
that the information produced, developed, and collected by the Institute's
staff reaches those who need it.

"We combine a clearly defined approach to our core audience—the conservation field—with a broader strategy that presents
a variety of material, from highly specialized technical and scientific
studies to more general information for the interested public,"
explains Neville Agnew, group director of Information and Communications.

The Institute provides this range of information to its audiences
in a number of forms and media. In the print realm, these include
the Institute's book publications, the journal Art
and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA), and the GCI newsletter.
Staff also collect, edit, and disseminate information in electronic
form through AATA, visual and graphic information derived
from field and research projects, and the GCI Web site, as well
as databases of bibliographic information. Plans are being developed
for integrating all of this information, with particular emphasis
on compatibility among databases and ease of electronic access.

"Using a systems analysis approach, a staff team will first examine
the types of information now being produced by the Institute and
then draft a structure or plan for how to use that information in
a unified way," says Julie Howell, manager of the GCI Information
Center. Staff members involved in producing, collecting, and managing
information at the GCI will contribute to an overall plan for reducing
duplication of effort, as well as for establishing consistent methods
of collection and recording for future projects and publications.

Book Publications

Certainly a highly visible aspect of the GCI's effort to disseminate
information is its book publications program. Since the Institute's
inception in 1985, GCI Publications has brought out nearly 70 books,
with 20 new titles appearing since the beginning of 1997 and several
more scheduled for the next few months.

At the heart of the Institute's publishing enterprise are six distinct
yet related series of books, each of which addresses the conservation
of cultural heritage from a slightly different perspective (see
sidebar). In addition, one-of-a-kind monographs and other works
are published to serve specific needs of the conservation community.

The Institute's publications are integrated with its research and
field projects. Conferences sponsored by the GCI are, for example,
important vehicles for disseminating and sharing information in
the field. The GCI Proceedings series provides a record of these
events in print.

"The international symposium on panel paintings conservation at
the Getty Museum in 1995 was the first such event for panel paintings
conservators in 20 years," notes Andrea Rothe, senior conservator
of paintings at the Getty Museum and coeditor of The Structural
Conservation of Panel Paintings. "It really was an event of
considerable importance for the profession. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the Proceedings volume of that conference fills
a major void in the professional literature."

A number of titles serve more than one purpose. Several university
conservation programs, for example, are adopting The Conservation
of Archaeological Sites in the Mediterranean Region. "Few books
deal in such detail with both archaeological site conservation and
site management," says Pamela Jerome, adjunct assistant professor
of historic preservation in the Graduate School of Architecture,
Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University in New York. "This
volume proves particularly useful, because it introduces students
to just how these issues are played out at specific major heritage
sites."

Books recently published or forthcoming this year cover a wide
range of subjects. Mortality Immortality? The Legacy of 20th-Century
Art, edited by Miguel Angel Corzo and based on a conference
held at the Getty Center in March 1998, presents the diverse views
of artists, curators, collectors, a philosopher, and a lawyer concerning
the nature and conservation of contemporary art. Biodeterioration
of Stone in Tropical Environments, by Rakesh Kumar and Anuradha
V. Kumar, analyzes the kinds and causes of stone biodeterioration
in hot and humid climates.

Forthcoming this summer are Building an Emergency Plan: A Guide
for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions, compiled by Valerie
Dorge and Sharon Jones, a practical manual to help museum professionals
develop emergency planning and response strategies to protect staff,
visitors, and collections. In the fall, Infrared Spectroscopy
in Conservation Science, by Michele Derrick, will appear in
the Scientific Tools for Conservation series. The fall season will
also bring Palace Sculpture of Abomey: History Told on Walls
in the Conservation and Cultural Heritage series, published by the
GCI along with the J. Paul Getty Museum. This book, designed for
the museum-going audience, recounts the story of the powerful West
African kingdom of Dahomey, with its female Amazon warriors and
its colorful palace bas-reliefs, this oral culture's only "written"
history; the bas-reliefs were conserved as part of a four-year GCI
field project.

A number of other book manuscripts are in development. Future volumes
will include a review of the literature by GCI senior scientist
David Scott, examining copper both in paint pigments and in corrosion
products. A forthcoming volume in the Research in Conservation series,
Color Science in the Examination of Museum Objects: Nondestructive
Procedures, will encapsulate the life work of Ruth Johnston-Feller,
one of the country's leading authorities on color analysis. Upcoming
in the Conservation and Cultural Heritage series is a book on the
Mogao grottoes in China, the site of another long-term GCI field
project; this new book tells the story of Buddhist cave art along
China's Silk Road.

Work has also begun on the second volume in the Readings in Conservation
series. The first volume, Historical and Philosophical Issues
in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, provided a broad overview
of the field through selected readings, some never before translated
into English or published only in hard-to-find journals. Volume
Two will focus on aesthetics and paintings conservation. "The Readings
series is exceptionally significant in the establishment of the
scholarly historiography of the profession of conservation," notes
Joyce Hill Stoner, professor and former chair in the Winterthur-University
of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. "Such disciplines as art
history, anthropology, and science have their own body of scholarly
writings, and these books, by tracing the development of the discourse
of conservation, promise to be a key to the future growth of our
profession."

Abstracts of the Literature

Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts
has been published by the GCI since 1985. Originally titled IIC
Abstracts and published by the International Institute for Conservation,
this periodical has served as a compendium of literature in the
field since 1955.

Each issue is compiled by approximately 120 volunteer abstractors,
most of them conservators in private practice or at cultural institutions
in more than 40 countries. Abstractors are located in the United
States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, China, and South America.
They collect material from journals and newsletters published locally
in any language, write the abstracts in English, and send them in
for review and editing. "New abstractors are always welcome," says
Linda Kincheloe, GCI research associate, who works primarily on
AATA. The greatest needs at present, she notes, are for abstracts
from French and South American literature, as well as coverage of
eastern Europe, Africa, and the Near East.

Each abstractor receives a selection of journals to read and sends
in abstracts as new issues appear. "Conservators generally abstract
work in their fields of expertise," Kincheloe explains, "and most
contributions are accepted by the journal's review board as long
as the material falls within the areas covered." Literature is gathered
from a wide range of disciplines, including chemistry, physics,
geology, materials science, biology, information science, computer
science, history, and archaeology. Consideration is being given
to expanding AATA's coverage to include such areas as economics
of culture and site conservation and management.

The current subscriber base includes 282 individuals, 304 university
and government libraries, 199 museums, 43 distributors and bookstores,
and 36 university conservation departments. Given the relatively
small size of the professional field, the journal appears to have
found its niche. "We couldn't do our research without it," Julie
Howell comments.

Under evaluation for the past year, AATA is now poised to
begin a new chapter in its history as an electronic as well as print
publication. AATA is currently available online through BCIN,
the bibliographic database of the Conservation Information Network,
a joint project of the GCI, the International Centre for the Study
of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property, the
Canadian Conservation Institute, the Conservation Analytical Laboratory
of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Canadian Heritage Information
Network. GCI staff are looking at a variety of other forms of access
for the future. "We are considering producing AATA in a number
of versions," Howell explained, "including print, CD-ROM, and a
Web version."

The GCI Web site is becoming an increasingly important vehicle
for delivering information. When the Web site was launched in August
1996 as part of an overall information and communications strategy,
the objective was to enhance the Institute's ability to provide
timely, accurate, and up-to-date information to the professional
community. The site contains the complete text of all the issues
of the GCI newsletter in English and Spanish since 1991, abstracts
of the scientific research undertaken at the Institute, and links
to other cultural- heritage-related sites. Because transmitting
information over the Web is so effective, the GCI plans in the future
to use the site to provide more content, including the full texts
of Getty-sponsored conservation-related publications and in-depth
GCI project information.

Reporting Results of Research

Writing up the results of research and submitting them for publication
in professional journals is part of the work of every scientist. "An important way to prove that what you're doing has some value
is to publish in peer-reviewed journals," Druzik observes. "You
can be assured when your work appears in these journals that they
have passed a tough review."

The work of GCI staff scientists appears regularly in such journals
as Studies in Conservation, Journal of the AIC, and Restaurator.
In addition to publishing in the conservation literature, GCI scientists
also contribute articles to specialized journals and conference
proceedings that represent a wide range of scientific disciplines.
For example, William S. Ginell, a GCI senior scientist, has published
in the Journal of the American Ceramics Society, as well as in the
seismological literature, while senior scientist David Scott has
published on metallography in Chemistry in Britain, The Oxford
Companion to Archaeology, and elsewhere.

As the Institute expands its horizons into the electronic environment
while at the same time adding to its list of books in print, it
seeks to amplify its role as an information resource to help the
conservation community do what it does best—bring the cultural
heritage of the past safely into the future.

Tevvy Ball and Dinah Berland are publications coordinators at
the Getty Conservation Institute.

Book Series of the GCI

Research in Conservation

Scientific references that present the findings of
research conducted by the GCI and its individual and
institutional research partners, as well as state-of-the-art
reviews of conservation literature.

Scientific Tools for Conservation

Volumes that provide guidance in the use of specific
conservation methods for the practicing conservation
professional.

GCI Scientific Program Reports

Publications that summarize the results of recent
research conducted under the auspices of the GCI.

Proceedings

Multi-author books based on professional conferences
sponsored by the GCI and its institutional partners.

Readings in Conservation

Anthologies of seminal texts, many originally written in
languages other than English, tracing the development of the
discourse of conservation.

Conservation and Cultural Heritage

Richly illustrated volumes produced in collaboration with
the Getty Museum, relating to GCI projects at important
cultural sites, for the museum-going audience.

The GCI Information Center & Collections

The GCI Information Center, located on the Plaza Level of
the Getty Center's East Building, was established in 1985 to
serve the needs of the local and international conservation
community and the Getty staff.

The Information Center's collection of approximately
25,000 volumes offers a comprehensive selection of
information in the areas of conservation and preservation,
applied science and technology, pure sciences, and general
works. Periodicals include current journals, studies, and
newsletters. The reference section contains periodical
indexes, topical encyclopedias, foreign-language
dictionaries, biographical sources, research directories,
and a variety of specialized materials, all specifically
organized to support conservation research. The conservation
collections are complemented by the extensive collections of
the Getty Research Institute which support advanced research
in the visual arts and the humanities and whose library
encompasses antiquity and all major periods of European art
history, with significant holdings in 19th and 20th century
materials.

Supporting the collection are more than five hundred
online databases and 70 CD-ROMs providing access to
international literature covering areas such as current
events, conservation science, general reference, nonprofit
funding, and cultural heritage preservation. Via the World
Wide Web, the Information Center also provides access to
library and university collections worldwide. It also acts
as a central repository for GCI project and visual
archives.

The Center staff supports the research and development
needs of the conservation community by providing a full
range of services, including document delivery,
acquisitions, reference, research support, visual resource
management, and training. Work tables with electrical and
network connections are available for those who wish to use
portable computers in the reading area.

Visitors are welcome, by appointment, from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. during workdays. To make an appointment, call (310) 440-6713.